Jourdain finishes 19th at O’Reilly Raceway Park

Courtesy Rory Connellan

CLEMONT, IN – Michel Jourdain made his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series short track start in Friday night’s Power Stroke Diesel 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park. Jourdain started in the 23rd position and finished 19th in the No. 50 Ford F-150.

Jourdain had to make the race on time, since the No. 50 team is outside of the top-30 in Craftsman Truck Series owner points. Crew chief Matt Puccia and Jourdain were forced to spend most of practice focusing on their qualifying effort to insure they would race on Friday night.

Jourdain fought a tight condition in his F-150 for much of the night, but was able to stay out of trouble and run a clean race. The No. 50 crew took advantage of a caution period on lap 59 to make a chassis adjustment in an attempt to free Jourdain up. While he was happy with the changes, it was not enough to make a major difference to the handling conditions. Jourdain lost a lap under green flag conditions, but was the beneficiary of the Lucky Dog free pass on lap 169. The No. 50 crew brought Jourdain to pit road to make one final attempt at freeing Jourdain up for his run to the finish.

Several cautions would fly in the closing laps of the race, preventing Jourdain from making a run towards the front of the field. The No. 50 crew was forced to settle for a 19th-place finish.

“I think we got the truck a little better, and I just learned a lot during the race,” said Jourdain. “This is really my first short track race in one of these trucks. Bristol to me is a superspeedway, and this is my other half-mile in these things. I feel like I learned a lot and that's good. The guys did a great job with good pit stops and we're getting better.”